NAMPA — With its back to the wall yet again, Post Falls battled.

Facing elimination twice in the 5A Region 1 tournament, the Trojans fought back.

Saturday, the battle was just a little bigger than the Trojans could fight back from.

Junior guard Dylan Lovett scored 18 points for Post Falls, which lost to the Boise Brave 54-44 in the state 5A consolation championship game at Ridgevue High.

Junior Ali Carpenter scored all seven of her points in the first quarter for Post Falls, which led 12-9 after the first quarter.

“Ali came out ready to play,” said ninth-year Post Falls coach Marc Allert, whose team finished 14-12. “She just plays hard, all the time. I’ve never said the words ‘Ali, you need to play harder’ and she does her thing and attacked the basket really well in the first half.”

Boise scored 21 of the next 24 points to take a 34-20 lead midway through the third quarter.

Peyton McFarland, a 6-foot-4 post who has signed with Utah, scored 18 points for Boise (17-9).

“Boise did a good job in the second half,” Allert said. “They were efficient and hit shots. We went into a drought and didn’t score. We did a good job of guarding Peyton between Kennedy (LaFountaine) and Capri (Sims), but she’s going to get hers. I can’t fault the effort, it was there. We played hard.”

Post Falls graduates four seniors from this year’s team.

“I was excited to get here, not just for the seniors, but for the younger kids to get down here,” Allert said. “We wanted them to come and see this environment. Our JV team went undefeated this year, so hopefully we can get back here.”

Lovett scored 13 of her 18 in the second half.

“She had a little bit of a lull in the first half, but came back strong in the second half,” Allert said. “She’s another one that just plays hard and started to hit some shots in the second half. When Dylan goes, we go as well.”

“It was a learning experience for the entire team, so it was really weird to just be here,” Lovett said. “We kept making bad decisions and turned it over, then kind of turned it around in the second half.”

The Brave played all four teams in the 5A IEL, going 3-1. The lone loss against the IEL came in their season opener at Lake City 58-55.

Post Falls 12 5 9 18 — 44

Boise 9 12 16 17 — 54

POST FALLS — Heath 3, Nichols 0, Blake 0, Lovett 18, Johnson 3, Fleming 2, Smith 8, LaFountaine 0, Sims 2, Walton 2, Carpenter 7, Christensen 0.

BOISE — Ross 12, Shimatsu 0, Oakland 4, Cadwell 3, Dyer 0, Williams 7, Nelson 2, Dingel 8, Hallam 2, McFarland 18.